Google is building a Quick Share SDK that lets Android and iOS apps add Quick Share file sharing inside the app itself, with a release planned for the first half of 2027. Google announced it in an Android Dev Summit 2026 session titled “Enabling seamless cross-device interactions.” It gave no exact date, so “first half” could mean as late as June 2027.
An SDK, or software development kit, is a package of ready-made code that developers drop into their apps. This one gives apps Quick Share, the nearby file-sharing feature built into Android.
Quick Share opens as a panel inside the app
Today, sharing a file from an app means opening the system share sheet and then Quick Share’s full-screen view. With the SDK, the app opens Quick Share itself as a bottom sheet, a panel that slides up from the bottom, with a preview of the files being sent. iPhone apps get a separate Quick Share iOS SDK. Android Authority also reports that Tap to Share, where touching two phones together starts a transfer, is part of the SDK.
Google lists five selling points:
- Encryption: files are end-to-end encrypted between the two devices and move over the local network.
- Speed: the SDK sets up hotspots automatically and uses Wi-Fi Direct, a phone-to-phone Wi-Fi link, on supported devices.
- No compression: photos and videos keep their original quality.
- Offline use: sharing works without a cellular connection.
- No servers: developers don’t need costly server infrastructure to move files.
No compression is the one I’d care about most. Messaging apps often shrink photos and videos before sending them, so a transfer that keeps the original file is a real reason to use this instead of a chat.
It follows Quick Share’s push toward iPhone
Quick Share first worked with Apple’s AirDrop on the Pixel 10 in November 2025, and more Galaxy, OnePlus, Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, and Honor phones have joined the list since. That route has a setup step on the iPhone: AirDrop has to be set to Everyone for 10 minutes before the Android phone can see it.
In May, Google also said Quick Share would arrive inside apps, including WhatsApp, with no date given. Google hasn’t said whether WhatsApp’s version will use this SDK.
Nothing changes until apps add it
Apps have to opt in, and Google hasn’t named any that will. Even after the SDK ships, your favorite chat or file app gets in-app Quick Share only if its developers add it. The AirDrop route depends on the phone maker. The SDK route depends on each app’s developer.
The coverage so far leaves several things open:
- OS version requirements on Android and iOS.
- Whether the Android side needs Google Play services.
- Whether a phone using the SDK can send to a phone that only has the built-in Quick Share or AirDrop.
- Whether Google will charge developers anything.
For now, there is nothing to switch on. Sharing from Android to an iPhone today still means the AirDrop route on a supported phone, or the QR code option Google added in May, which sends files to an iPhone through the cloud.
